Free markets are unacceptable to the state

Mark Thornton tells us, "for bureaucrats and left-wing ideologues, no private solution is praiseworthy." One could go further and substitute "acceptable" for "praiseworthy." This is why in Washington, D.C., should anyone show interest in the theory underlying the bailouts and power-grabs, the ideological plate has room for only state-centered entrees. Market-based solutions are toxic to the state. People are embracing the free-market perspectives of Tom Woods' Meltdown and the commentaries of Peter Schiff, Jim Rogers, and Ron Paul. But in D.C., none of it matters. What matters is power, and free markets shift power to the individual.

Ayn Rand had a profound insight on this phenomenon. In a 1946 letter to Leonard Read, the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, she said:

You imply that the cause of the world’s troubles lies solely in people’s ignorance of economics and that the way to cure the world is to teach it the proper economic knowledge. This is not true—therefore your program will not work. …

People are not embracing collectivism because they have accepted bad economics. They are accepting bad economics because they have embraced collectivism. …

The moral and social idea preached by everybody today (and by the conservatives louder than all) is the idea of collectivism. Men are told that man exists only to serve others…

My emphasis.